The U.S. Small Business Administration is giving social media workshops at UCONN campuses this March and April.

52% of people in the U.S. work at businesses with 20 people or less. Small businesses have led the country out of every recession. Many believe, including comScore, social media will be a big asset this time around.

Since I’m one of them, I’m grateful to contribute along with Mike Rogers of Brainloaf, http://www.brainloaf.com and other small business owners (featured below) that have used social media successfully. Here are 7 social media tips to build brands.

Strategy trumps technology: A business strategy and social media strategy are the same thing. In using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, apps etc., ask yourself how these amplify the business strategy and increase customer engagement and trust in your brand?

Set measurements and expectations first: Don’t believe anyone who says you can’t measure social media. You can know more about buying behaviors on the internet (e.g. where customers come from, how long they spend with you, what they do and where they go) than in your store. Plus Google Analytics and bit.ly links are free. If you’re not convinced, David Berkowitz has a great presentation on 100 measurements at: http://bit.ly/pmadb

Social media takes time: Small business owners, understandably, have lots of priorities. Manage what you can handle. Customers come first. Social media is going to be around for a while.

Live with the ups and downs: What you want is a following and fans. It doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t happen the way you thought it would, but, stick with it, and it does happen. Enjoy the journey.

Not all social networks are equal: In every case I’ve seen, some social networks do better than others depending on the unique nature of every business. For AJ Bombers, a burger joint, it was Twitter, acting as a virtual host, and a video from Chris Brogan. For a utilitarian product like Blendtec blenders, it was unconventional product demos from Founder/CEO, Tom Dickson. You can learn from their experiences below and expect it will happen for you.

Have your online house in order: If you follow tips 1-5, you will experience increased traffic. It will go to your web site, the most important asset in any social media program. There’s an old saying: Nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising. Today, nothing kills a good social media program faster than a bad web site.

Believe in your product: Joe Sorge, owner of AJ Bombers, who now has a book, #Twitterworks (http://twitterworks.tv), spoke in a video call from Milwaukee. Joe says his Twitter page, AJBombers, has increased weekly sales +25%. What was most important to his success? “If I didn’t believe AJ Bombers made the best cheeseburger on the planet, social media wouldn’t have accomplished a thing.”

If you’re in the area, the next workshop is April 27th at UCONN in Stamford from 6pm to 9 pm. Details will be at: http://bit.ly/bW22Ml

Because pictures tell a much more interesting story. It’s easy to dispute words; it’s hard to ignore what a picture or graph says.

Like the one below, a graph of people who queried Google about “social media” over the last six years. It tells me just how social media crossed a lot more people’s minds a lot more often this year and, although I can’t know if the rate will increase like this in 2010, it tells me it’s about to get a whole lot more interesting. What does it tell you?

You may already know about Google Trends and what a great resource it is. But, if you don’t, you can examine trends on any topic you could possibly imagine for free at http://www.google.com/trends. Think about it for your presentations next year. All the best in 2010.